scholarly journals Leveraging Strategic Foresight to Advance Worker Safety, Health and Well-Being

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (16) ◽  
pp. 8477
Author(s):  
Jessica M. K. Streit ◽  
Sarah A. Felknor ◽  
Nicole T. Edwards ◽  
John Howard
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Science And Art ◽  
Strategic Plans ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Strategic Foresight ◽  
Health And Well Being

Attending to the ever-expanding list of factors impacting work, the workplace, and the workforce will require innovative methods and approaches for occupational safety and health (OSH) research and practice. This paper explores strategic foresight as a tool that can enhance OSH capacity to anticipate, and even shape, the future as it pertains to work. Equal parts science and art, strategic foresight includes the development and analysis of plausible alternative futures as inputs to strategic plans and actions. Here, we review several published foresight approaches and examples of work-related futures scenarios. We also present a working foresight framework tailored for OSH and offer recommendations for next steps to incorporate strategic foresight into research and practice in order to advance worker safety, health, and well-being.

scholarly journals Total Worker Health® 2014–2018: The Novel Approach to Worker Safety, Health, and Well-Being Evolves

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Tamers ◽  
L. Chosewood ◽  
Adele Childress ◽  
Heidi Hudson ◽  
Jeannie Nigam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Building Information ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Total Worker Health

Background: The objective of this article is to provide an overview of and update on the Office for Total Worker Health® (TWH) program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (CDC/NIOSH). Methods: This article describes the evolution of the TWH program from 2014 to 2018 and future steps and directions. Results: The TWH framework is defined as policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being. Conclusions: The CDC/NIOSH TWH program continues to evolve in order to respond to demands for research, practice, policy, and capacity building information and solutions to the safety, health, and well-being challenges that workers and their employers face.

scholarly journals Total worker health® is the future of worker safety, health, and well-being

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Tamers
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Future Of Work ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
The Future ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Total Worker Health

Abstract The future of work is being shaped by rapid changes in the workplace, work, and workforce. Driven by advances in industry, this movement is marked by the accelerated pace of developments connecting people, places, and things. All these advances and developments have implications for worker safety, health, and well-being and require innovative occupational safety and health strategies. Because of these new realities, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently launched the Future of Work (FOW) Initiative. This Initiative is a collaborative effort of multidisciplinary research, communication, and partnerships throughout NIOSH, other agencies, and organizations that aims to identify novel research solutions, practical approaches, and partnership opportunities to address the future of work. To more broadly address worker safety, health, and well-being, the FOW Initiative applies the Total Worker Health® (TWH) framework. TWH is defined as policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being. The TWH approach prioritizes changes to improve physical, organizational, and psychosocial factors that present possible risks in the work environment for today's and tomorrow's workforce. This presentation will first introduce CDC/NIOSH's FOW Initiative. Next, the TWH integrated approach will be defined and described. Centering on CDC/NIOSH's future of work priority topics in the areas of workplace (organizational design, technological displacement, work arrangements), work (artificial intelligence, robotics, technologies), and workforce (demographics, economic security, skills), the presenter will then provide evidence-based solutions to address future of work issues and related outcomes, using the TWH approach. Key messages The future of work has world-wide implications for the workplace, work, workforce. The Total Worker Health framework is a transdisciplinary approach by which to view and address the future of work. Public health professionals and other stakeholders must take a proactive approach to address worker safety, health, and well-being issues impacted by the future of work.

The Occupational Safety and Health of Pornography Performers

2021 ◽  
pp. 187-208
Author(s):  
Emily F. Rothman
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
Health Hazards ◽  
Independent Contractors ◽  
Sexually Transmitted ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Health Related

This chapter focuses on the work-related hazards faced by pornography performers and other laborers in the adult entertainment industry workforce. The chapter reviews demographics and characteristics of pornography performers, what health-related and other challenges those in the industry face because of their work, which organized groups support their collective health and safety on the job, and what policies have been drafted that seek to address pornography performers’ health and safety. The chapter details health hazards, including sexually transmitted infections (STIs), violence on set, stigma, the challenges of working as independent contractors, and lack of wage transparency in the industry. The chapter emphasizes that occupational safety and health hazards faced by performers are undoubtedly compounded when performers are Black, Latinx, transgender, or identify as belonging to another marginalized group. Public health advocates should focus on promoting the well-being of those who work in the pornography industry by establishing meaningful, long-term, trusting partnerships with those presently working in the industry.

Managing Workplace Safety and Health

2013 ◽  
pp. 512-536
Author(s):  
Thomas Kniesner ◽  
John D. Leeth
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Workplace Safety ◽  
Economic Incentive ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Safety And Health

This entry explicates how market forces incent managers to be concerned with worker health and safety. It also notes how supplementing market forces are government actions intended to improve work-related health and safety. These include the legal system under tort laws, states’ workers’ compensation insurance Programs, research into the causes of health hazards at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the federal government’s workplace regulations under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). An important empirical conclusion emerging is that the labor market, via the additional compensation workers require for exposure to health and safety risks, provides the largest economic incentive for managers making workplace decisions involving worker health-related well being.

scholarly journals Advancing Well-Being Through Total Worker Health®

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 158-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita L. Schill
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Health Hazards ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Illness Prevention ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Paradigm Shifting ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Total Worker Health

Total Worker Health® (TWH) is a paradigm-shifting approach to safety, health, and well-being in the workplace. It is defined as policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being. The most current TWH concepts are presented, including a description of issues relevant to TWH and introduction of a hierarchy of controls applied to TWH. Total Worker Health advocates for a foundation of safety and health through which work can contribute to higher levels of well-being.

scholarly journals Defining ‘Integration’ for Total Worker Health®: A New Proposal

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Punnett ◽  
Jennifer M Cavallari ◽  
Robert A Henning ◽  
Suzanne Nobrega ◽  
Alicia G Dugan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Promotion ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Workplace Health ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Building Program ◽  
Total Worker Health

Abstract The effects of work and the conditions of employment on health behaviors and intermediate health conditions have been demonstrated, to the extent that these relationships should be addressed in efforts to prevent chronic disease. However, conventional health promotion practice generally focuses on personal risk factors and individual behavior change. In an effort to find solutions to the myriad of health challenges faced by the American workforce, the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) established the Total Worker Health® (TWH) program. Originally organized around the paradigm of integrating traditional occupational safety and health protections with workplace health promotion, TWH has evolved to a broader emphasis on workplace programs for enhancing worker safety, health, and well-being. Among the research programs and approaches developed by investigators at NIOSH Centers of Excellence for TWH and elsewhere, definitions of ‘integration’ in workplace interventions vary widely. There is no consensus about which organizational or individual outcomes are the most salient, how much to emphasize organizational contexts of work, or which program elements are necessary in order to qualify as ‘Total Worker Health’. Agreement about the dimensions of integration would facilitate comparison of programs and interventions which are self-defined as TWH, although diverse in content. The specific criteria needed to define integration should be unique to that concept—i.e. distinct from and additive to conventional criteria for predicting or evaluating the success of a workplace health program. We propose a set of four TWH-specific metrics for integrated interventions that address both program content and process: (i) coordination and interaction of workplace programs across domains; (ii) assessment of both work and non-work exposures; (iii) emphasis on interventions to make the workplace more health-promoting; and (iv) participatory engagement of workers in pivotal ways during intervention prioritization and planning to develop self-efficacy in addressing root causes, skill transfer, building program ownership, empowerment, and continuous improvement. Thus we find that integration requires organizational change, both to engage two managerial functions with different goals, legal responsibilities, and (often) internal incentives & resources, and also to orient the organization toward salutogenesis. Examples from research activity within the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace illustrate how these criteria have been applied in practice.

scholarly journals Employer Preparedness: A Total Worker Health Conceptual Framework and Model

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cora Roelofs
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Worker Health ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
The Face ◽  
Health And Well Being ◽  
Total Worker Health

Background: Recent disasters have demonstrated gaps in employers’ preparedness to protect employees and promote their well-being in the face of emergencies and disasters affecting the workplace and their communities. Total Worker Health (TWH), a comprehensive perspective developed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, is a helpful framework for addressing employer preparedness. It includes attention to health and safety at work, and the promotion of the health and well-being of the employee in the context of social determinants of health, such as work-life balance. Methods: TWH concepts, including the domains of TWH and the TWH Hierarchy of Controls, were investigated for their relevance to protecting employees and promoting their well-being during and after crises such as weather disasters, pandemics, and acts of terrorism. Building upon TWH concepts, an employer preparedness framework and model is proposed. Findings: The Model emphasizes upstream prevention, workplace-community linkages, social and economic impacts, and employer leadership through a cyclical planning process. Conclusions/Application to Practice: The Model can assist employers in advancing their preparedness for all hazards through self-assessment and planning agendas based upon the proposed domains.

Workplace wearables and Connected Worker solutions: Changing the digital landscape of occupational safety, health and productivity (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishal Patel ◽  
Austin Chesmore ◽  
Christopher Legner ◽  
Santosh Pandey
Keyword(s):  
Pervasive Computing ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Wearable Devices ◽  
Hazard Identification ◽  
Worker Safety ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Occupational Risks ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Heat And Cold Stress

BACKGROUND Workplaces affect the worker safety, health and productivity at multiple levels. Smart data collection devices (wearable devices) and pervasive computing platforms (connected worker solutions) have emerged for the continuous surveillance, mitigation, and predictability of occupational risks and hazards. While there is significant buzz about new and trending workplace technologies, there is however very limited organized information on these products, their applications and workforce benefits. Most of new information on workplace technology products appears in news outlets, websites and social media. The existing insight articles on this topic cover a select number of products and use cases. As such, there is a need to assimilate all the above information in a comprehensive and easily digestible manner -- something that has been done in the field of consumer electronic wearables. OBJECTIVE Here, we review the recent trends in commercial workplace technologies to monitor and manage occupational risks, injuries, accidents, and diseases. We present examples of workplace safety wearables intended for safe lifting, ergonomics, hazard identification, sleep monitoring, fatigue management, and heat and cold stress. We give examples of workplace productivity wearables for asset tracking, augmented reality, gesture and motion control, brain wave sensing, and work stress management. We also show examples of workplace health wearables designed for work-related musculoskeletal disorders, functional movement disorders, respiratory hazards, cardiovascular health, outdoor sun exposure, and continuous glucose monitoring. Connected worker platforms are discussed with information about the architecture, system modules, intelligent operations, and industry applications. Taken together, these examples highlight the ground level benefits of real-time visibility about frontline workers, work environment, distributed assets, workforce efficiency, and safety compliance. In addition, predictive analytics with artificial intelligence and machine learning provide contextual information about occupational safety risks, resource allocation, equipment failure, and predictive maintenance. METHODS We researched different companies within the fields of occupational health, safety, and productivity. We then communicated with each company, discussed their products, and sought permission to reproduce their product images in our review manuscript. We compiled the different categories of products in this space and presented them in this work. RESULTS For long-term industrial leadership and sustainability, such a compilation of emerging trends in wearable devices and pervasive computing is valuable to all interested players responsible for a safe, healthy and productive workplace. CONCLUSIONS We believe that this review will build awareness about work-related safety and health technologies for the common public and the diverse groups of personnel (employers, safety and health managers, supervisors, employees) involved in the development, implementation, adoption, and management of these technologies. CLINICALTRIAL none

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